Volunteered to Play-The 100th Hunger Games
by FanFictionTribute
Summary: This year is different. This year is the Fourth Quarter Quell. This year is the 100th Hunger Games. Twenty-four tributes will go in. Twenty-four tributes will come out. But who will come out in a box and who will come out broken. Does it matter? Which is better? Time will only tell. One thing is certain, though, everyone will come out broken. Some more than others.


**Disclaimer: The Hunger Games does not belong to me. They belong to Suzanne Collins. I am merely writing as a form of entertainment for both me and you. No copyright infringement is intended.**

 **Disclaimer: The first part of this story does not belong to me. They belong to Cjborange. I am merely writing as a form of entertainment for both me and you. This is merely a continueation.**

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 **Volunteered to Play-The 100th Hunger Games**

 **By: FanFiction Tribute**

 **Chapter One: Prologue One-The Tribute Ball**

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 **Calypso Azowa**

 **Head Gamemaker**

 **Interview Night**

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I sip the last of my now-cold afternoon coffee, grimacing as the coffee's bitter taste hits my throat. I motion for an avox to come and collect my coffee cup. I sigh and massage my temples as I feel another headache starting. I've been having many headaches lately since the reaping. I guess it's just the pre-game nerves getting to me. When my migraine subsides, I scan the room and notice all the other game makers have clocked out already. Looking at the clock, I notice it's only 6:00. Usually, we stay behind longer to ensure that the tributes and games are fine, especially during the pre-games ceremonies, starting from the night before the reaping, but today, I allowed them to clock out earlier. We'll need our rest once the games start when we are expected to be on duty 24/7.

During the games, we stay in special quarters near the Gamemaker Headquarters to ensure we can be ready to work at the drop of a hat. This is the last night we can go home to our houses before the games begin. Tomorrow, everyone will be here at 8:00 AM to make sure launch and the bloodbath run smoothly. During the day from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM, while the tributes are most active, everyone is here. At night, we have two shifts, one from 9:00 PM to 1:30 AM and from 1:30 AM to 6:00 AM. That means we typically don't catch much rest and have to rely on pills and coffee to keep awake.

Looking up again, I notice only Luna, our night guard during the pre-games ceremonies is still here. I call back to her, "I'm going to clock out now. Make sure you stay here until 8:00 tomorrow, then you're free to go for the rest of the games."

Luna nods in agreement, "Got it. I'll see you tomorrow, ma'am"

* * *

I leave the Headquarters, my heels clicking on the tiled floor and call for my driver, an avox. When she pulls up, I step gently into the limo and sit down. I then motion for the avox to start driving towards my house on the Eastern side of the Capitol, near the President's Mansion. A few minutes later, I am at my home. Walking through the silent house, I sit in front of my holo, a device that projects images, like a TV that the non-elite Capitolites use. I personally think the holo is much better and has better quality.

Usually, right before the games, we watch old Hunger Games clips to help speed up brainstorming and become inspired. I have all the old tapes of the Hunger Games. Rummaging through the pile of old tapes, I choose to watch the 74th Hunger Games. I haven't watched that one in a while, especially because that was the year before the Quarter Quell, and with the exception of the 24th Hunger Games, all the games before Quells are generally anti-climactic to create hype for the next Quell. In fact, the last games were so anti-climactic, the Head Gamemaker and most of the important Gamemakers "died" right after the games. Actually, they were killed by the snake mutts in the desert arena they created, after more than half of the tributes died of dehydration.

Starting the tape, I listen as the anthem blares over the speakers. The recording quickly shows the reaping highlights, only going in full during the District Two Reaping, when Cato, that year's winner, and Cleo volunteers. They also show the Chariot Ride recaps, when they quickly cut across all the tributes, lingering the most on Cato, who is dressed in Greek armor, showing his well-defined muscles to the Capitolites and making most of them swoon. They quickly cut to the end of the score reveals, when they show all the score and I note that Cato earned a ten. Next, highlights of the interviews are shown, ending with Cato's "arrogant career" angle. In total, it takes about half an hour.

Next, they show the bloodbath in full for half an hour and I watch as the careers quickly kill most of the outer-district tributes with a couple of the stronger outer-district tribute killing off some of the weaker ones. After quickly cutting across the corpses, they then spend about five to ten minutes on each death, focusing more on the mutation and career kills, and showing less of the survival deaths and mercy kills. That leaves about another half-hour for the finale of the games.

At first it seems like the two Twelve tributes are about to win, but when Cato jumps out of the way when Katniss's final arrow hits what would have been his hand, he throws Peeta down to the mutts, who eats part of him, only leaving a few limbs for the Gamemakers to collect and bury while he and Katniss battle it out. Halfway through, when Katniss hears Peeta's cannon, she gives up on winning, throwing away the knife she was battling with and allowing Cato to slowly torture and kill her. The last shot consists of a blood-lathered Cato being lifted out of the arena towards eternal fame and glory. Checking the time, I see that I have time to watch the beginning of the next games, the Quarter Quell.

It starts with the reading of the card. They don't show the whole speech, just the reading. The card reads, "As a reminder to the rebels of the poor choices and decisions that led to the existence of the Hunger Games, the person whose name was reaped from each reaping bowl will be required to handpick somebody of the same gender to take their place in the games." Just as they are about to start the District One Reaping, the wider is interrupted by a mandatory viewing, the interviews. While the anthem is playing and Marcel is introducing himself and the tributes, I get up to stretch my legs and go to the bathroom. I then move to the kitchen and order my dinner, a delicious steak in herb sauce cooked rare on a bed of rice with a side of a thick lamb stew. I bring it back just as the District One Interview begins.

I finish my dinner by the District Nine Interviews and order a dessert of a platter of fruit with light, airy cake chunks mixed in. I also have an apple pie topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of cherry sauce. I finish dessert by the end of the interviews and start to head up to bed. I will need a nice, long nap before the games begin tomorrow at 8:00. However, just as I am beginning to unwind, an avox comes into my room with the phone. She passes the phone to me and I look at the caller ID. I groan inwardly as I see it reads, Martius, the president's personal peacekeeper.

I pick up and immediately, Martius starts speaking, only leaving room for me to say "mmm" and "mhm".

"Ma'am, there's been a slight problem. After the interviews, our ratings, even from the Capitolites immediately dropped by 72%. It's an emergency! We need to get to the bottom of this. We are already running bug test. President Lock believes this is a rebel stunt, but we can't be sure. In any case, he would like you to meet with him in a few minutes. Bring your arena, twist, and mutation plans as well! President Lock would like to see those as well." Martius briefs me.

"Got it!" I say in response. Then, the receiver clicks off. I hastily gather all the plans and my notebooks and call for my driver to bring me to the Presidential Mansion. When we get there, I knock twice on the door and wait to be invited in.

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"Ah, that must be our new Head Gamemaker. Dear Calypso, please come in. I recall that I called you today for a conference," President Lock muses.

I walk in slowly and sit down at the chair across from the President's desk. Gingerly, I set the many notebooks on his desk and wait to be addressed.

"Although I know that I called you here under the pretense of the dropped ratings, which we will get to in a second once they are confirmed. But first, I would like to see your plan for this year's arena. I hope you incorporated my idea of having all the districts represented in the arena," President Lock begins. I pass him my notebooks flipped open to the arena plans. I watch his face as it turns from shock to interest to excitement to happiness to his usual emotionless mask. "I think this is an amazing idea with much potential. I am very excited to see what you have in store for our tributes this year. Moving on, can you tell me a little more how this arena works?"

I open up my notebook and looking at my notes, I begin to explain. "As you know, this arena has multiple floors. On each floor, there are many hallways, each a few feet wide. The rooms themselves are only a couple square miles. We will launch our tributes on the first floor, Floor One. That day will be the day the mutts will be active on that floor, as well as the supply stations. We will also open up the hovercraft ladders that work similarly to the victor ladders at the end of each Hunger Games. These ladders will take the tributes up to the next floor, Floor Two. At the end of Day One, the floor will be destroyed and the tributes on the floor will also die. The same thing will happen the next day, and so on. The twist is that the tributes would be playing musical chairs, so to speak as the hovercraft ladders are limited to one less than the number of tributes and they may have to fight for the ladders. The ladders will also be in different places and will take the tributes to different parts of the new floor, effectively breaking up some of the alliances, particularly the Careers. Another minor twist is that the tributes will not be able to go back to the previous floor to help their allies."

President Lock nods thoughtfully, "I especially like that idea. As this is a Quarter Quell, this arena is definitely exciting enough for the Capitol audiences. I also like how this modeled after the districts, which will surely interest some of the districts into this year's games. By having certain days floors are featured, you would be promoting two strategies, the first being to look for the supply ladders and stay safe, or venture out for supplies but risk being killed. But I have a few questions. First of all, will the order of the districts be randomized or will they just be in ascending order? Also, are the wall's materials changing based upon the district or will they remain the same?"

"To create extra hype and excitement, we will randomize the districts and only show the district of the next floor when a tribute reaches it. Also, the wall's material will change based on the district. The walls will also move and slowly become blocked off as tributes die. On the walls will be secret trapdoors with devices that will show maps of the maze and locations of supply stations, tributes, ladders, etc. We will not reveal this to the tributes or the Capitol audience until a tribute receives one of these maps. Also, the device is real-time and maps will change as time goes on and the walls shift. These devices are also accessible as sponsor gifts and supply station goodies. However, all of these devices will only apply to the floor they were found on, so once a tribute leaves their floor, the device will be useless."

"I think this is a great arena plan and will definitely hook the majority of the Capitol audience. Now, how about the cornucopia. From my understanding, there will be a new cornucopia every day, with entirely new supplies. Am I correct in assuming that?"

I elaborate, "Yes, and the cornucopia on the first day will be filled to the brim with supplies of various qualities. However, from there on out, there will be no more weapons so the tributes will have to rely on sponsor gifts and the weapons they snatched from the first day. However, we will still keep survival supplies such as food, water, tents, etc. that pertain to the environment that the day's floor is housed on. On a side note, the number of supplies will decrease by 10% each day, the average amount the supplies dwindle every day of the Hunger Games. On the contrary, the supply stations will only contain weapons and not survival items."

"That's an interesting and innovative idea. But, that raises an important problem. What will we do about the tribute uniforms? Because this is a changing environment, we have to help the tribute to some degree adapt to the various temperatures. After all, it won't do to just have half the tributes die of hypothermia or heat stroke during these very important games."

I nod and reply, "We designed this new kind of fabric that helps to regulate the body's temperature to a certain extent. It will keep the tribute warm but still require them to build shelters and search for supply stations. The plan is for them to wear a body suit of this black fabric. Over the fabric, they will wear a jacket and pair of combat pants in their district colors. They will also wear gloves and leather boots."

"Well then, now that that issue is taken care of, let's switch over to the twists. How did you incorporate those?"

I immediately launch into an explanation. "The first twist was that a map of each tribute's location would be projected into the sky. We, of course, changed that to having them located in the trapdoors on the wall. However, we will still project of a map of the arena with the tributes, but the floor will only be split into eight "wedges", North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, and Northwest. That way, the careers will have to search more and the outlier tribute may stay safer. The second was that the family member of the victor will be removed from the reaping bowls. We decided that this rule holds only if the year is not a Quell. Secondly, we used a system of "links". A mother, father, child, and sibling would be separated by one link. From there, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, grandparents, etc. would be separated by two links, and so on. A family member would count if they were separated by no more than five "links". So this protection would only last for five generations. Also, only blood relative count, so this protection does not extend to spouses. For the last twist, we obviously take the body away via hovercraft. After that, we will heal them of the wound that killed them, so if a tribute died of an infection in the leg, we would only heal that wound and not say a sprained wrist. Next, we will launch the tribute after they have been healed on that day's floor in a random location with fresh clothing. Any devices they had at the time of death would be taken away. Furthermore, supplies the tribute had would also be given to them, if they had acquired them three hours before their death and they were within and a mile and a half radius when they died. So if they were fighting over supplies and died, then the supplies they were fighting over would not be given to them."

As I finish my explanation, I notice Martius enter the room. President Lock signals for him to come closer and tell him what the matter is. They have a quick, hurried whispered conversation before President lock clearly dismisses Martius and turns back to me. I try to read his face, but as usual, I cannot deduce a hint of emotion. I wait for him to speak.

He sighs "Unfortunately, Ms. Calypso, the dropped rates are not a fluke. They are true and that means we must do something about it."

"We could wait until after the bloodbath to sort things out. Besides, it is quite possible that the rates will increase after some bloodshed." I propose.

"I believe we must do something about it instantly."

For the next few minutes, we intensely debate about what to do with this situation. In the end, President Lock's suggestion to hold off on the bloodbath until the next day and instead host a "Tribute Ball" wins out.

"Well, Dear Calypso, you are dismissed. I expect you to go home and plan this ball out. Good luck with that."

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I collect my various notebooks and leave the room. Calling for my limo, I ride home and walk straight to my study, ordering a hot cup of coffee on the way there. I gulp down some coffee, hoping to get the caffeine to wake me up and activate me. After, I place my cup of coffee in the corner and clear of my desk. Then, I get straight to work.

A few hours later, I have the whole event planned out and ready to go. I smile at my completed documents. All I have left is to announce the plans to the tributes as I already have printed out invites to the sponsors. I decided to make attendance non-mandatory so the tributes can spend the day training in the training center, which will be open, strategizing with mentors or attending the balls. However, attendance for lunch and dinner which with be two hours each for a total of four hours will be required to showcase the tributes a little more.

During the rest of the ball, the tributes will be in separate rooms, or in the case of any alliances that wish to do so, the same room. The room is outfitted with a desk, multiple chairs and couches, and a side table of food. There also will be avoxes waiting on the tributes and Peacekeepers nearby in case help is needed. There, press and potential sponsors may visit and ask the tributes questions, talk to them, etc. The ball will end at 12:00, although most of the tributes will not stay that long, as the games are tomorrow.

All I can hope is that the President is impressed and the ratings rise. I guess that means another sleepless night for me. I am getting many of those. It seems like fate doesn't want me to sleep. No matter. After all, my fate is much better than the tributes. But what fate wants, fate gets.

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 **Hello Fellow Reader,**

 **This is my very first fanfiction so I hope you stay with me throughout this crazy journey. This fanfiction is actually a continuation of cjborange's fanfiction, The 100th Hunger Games and I am really excited to see where this goes. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Please review if you had a moment. I would really appreciate it!**

 **This will be the first prologue. Although technically, the games should begin this chapter, I wanted to add a prologue and show you my writing style. From here, the plan is to have six more each featuring two hours of the ball (9:00 AM to 9:00 PM). Each chapter will feature two mentors, one career, and three other tributes. I will split them so there will be four female POVs and four male POVs. All the POVs will be randomized by a randomizer, except when I need to purposefully choose a POV based on plot reasons. I might have the last chapter to show the aftermath of the ball.**

 **Until next time,**

 **Fanfiction Tribute**


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